Women’s World Cup 2019: Where is the World Cup being played?

With 24 of the world’s best national teams congregating on France this summer, let’s look at the venues where they will play the Women’s World Cup.

Beginning on June 7, two dozen national soccer teams will take to the pitch across France for the 52 matches that will determine the FIFA Women’s World Cup champion. Nine venues in nine cities across the country will play host to the eighth edition of the tournament, affording a range of experiences.

Five of the stadiums dot the northern regions of France, while the other four are clustered in the southeastern quadrant of the country. Each offers their own unique flavor, from older venues that hosted the men’s edition of the World Cup back in 1998 and others that were not yet built the last time the World Cup was held on French soil two decades ago.

After a short list of one dozen stadiums, nine ultimately made the final list of World Cup venues. Nantes, Nancy and Auxerre just missed the cut. Let’s look a bit closer at each of the nine stadiums that earned the honor ahead of the tournament start.

The northern contingent: Paris, Rennes, Reims, Le Havre, Valenciennes

One of the two axes of the tournament is the 48,000-seat Parc des Princes in Paris. Rather than putting the tournament in the 80,000-seat Stade de France in Saint-Denis, the tournament organizers opted for the more intimate venue in the 16th arrondissement in the southwestern regions of the capital city. The Parc des Princes will be hosting the opening match between France and South Korea as well as three other group-stage matches and knockout matches in the Round of 16 and quarterfinals.

From Paris, the capital city is flanked by two other World Cup cities to the east and west respectively. To the east, the 21,000-seat Stade Auguste-Delaune in Reims is the second-oldest stadium hosting matches in the tournament. In operation since 1935, it will host five group-stage matches and a round of 16 clash. The highlight match in the group stage at the venue is South Korea against Norway, at least from a competitive standpoint. The USWNT also plays in Reims for their opening Group F match against Thailand on June 11.

The only venue older than Stade Auguste-Delaune is Roazhon Park in Rennes. The Breton city hosted its first match 23 years earlier than its Reims counterpart, opening way back in 1912. As the oldest venue, it hosts France against Nigeria on June 17 as well as a huge Germany-China donnybrook on June 8. It also gets to host one of the quarterfinal matches along with a Round of 16 matchup.

Near the border with Belgium, Valenciennes will host matches as well at the 25,000-seat Stade du Hainaut. Opened in 2011, it is a stark contrast to some of the other northern venues in terms of its age. Italy takes on Brazil in the city on June 18 in the final round of Group C matches, and it also gets the chance to host both round of 16 and quarterfinal contests.

Likewise, the Stade Océane in Le Havre is another 25,000-seater that opened a year after its counterpart in Valenciennes. Le Havre will host the last of the four quarterfinal battles, and the city also hosts a powerhouse group-stage showdown when Sweden faces off against the United States on June 20.

The southern quartet: Lyon, Montpellier, Grenoble, Nice

If Paris is the northern axis of the tournament, Lyon fills that role on the southern side of the map. The Parc Olympique Lyonnais is the newest venue among host stadiums, only four years old. It is also the largest venue, holding nearly 60,000 fans. As the only stadium with such capacity in the field of nine host cities, Lyon earned the honor of hosting both semifinals as well as the championship match. It will not feature in the group stages, but there will surely still be plenty to see there leading up to the terminal matches.

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To the southeast, the 20,000-seat Stade des Alpes in Grenoble takes the tournament to the mountains. The decade-old venue hosts four group-stage matches and a Round of 16 tilt. The venue, just more than a decade old, is better known at this point as the venue of rugby union’s FC Grenoble but was originally built when fourth-division soccer club GF38 was higher up the pyramid. Jamaica plays two of their three Group C matches in Grenoble, against Brazil in the opener and Australia in the third match.

Continue southeast toward the Mediterranean coast and you land in Nice, where the 36,000-seat Allianz Riviera will host the third-place match as well as a Round of 16 encounter and four group-stage matches. The venue, which was built as part of France’s bid to host Euro 2016, gets a second chance to shine. France and Norway play their in the second batch of Group A matches on June 12.

The final venue of the nine-city tour of Le Grande Boucle is Montpellier. After the massive retrofit as part of the 1998 Men’s World Cup bid, the Stade de la Mosson originally opened in 1972 and has hosted both association and rugby football codes ever since. Australia and Brazil meet in a powerhouse clash at the stadium on June 13, and will also host one of the Round of 16 matches.

In total, the balance skews slightly in favor of the northern contingent in favor of the southern cluster of cities. Between the group and knockout stages, 31 of the 52 total matches will be held in one of the five cities through the northern regions. Lyon hosts only three matches, but they are the three biggest matches of the eighth Women’s World Cup.